


Another song?

by itsthebat



Series: Jason's piano [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Gen, alfred is only mentioned, and brothers being brothers, but hes mentioned a lot, i dont know if this is angst really???, i needed jason and damian being good brothers to each other, its more like fluff, so here it is, so its like hes in here too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 10:11:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsthebat/pseuds/itsthebat
Summary: Damian just lost someone important, so Jason plays the piano.





	Another song?

Jason is playing the piano.

            It’s been ages since he played the piano for the last time, and he can’t believe that his brain hasn’t forgotten the songs Alfred taught him all those years ago. He doesn’t know the name of this one, but his fingers sure know the tiles they have to play and how much time they have to linger on one and then change to another. He closes his eyes without realizing he’s doing it, and he doesn’t hear the thunders or rain anymore, it’s just the song.

            He misses it, playing. Jason remembers when he was a kid and saw the big piano abandoned in a room. “Who plays it?” he asked, and Alfred told him that no one, that Bruce tried but failed, that music was not one of his many talents. So Jason asked Alfred if he knew how to play it, and when he said yes, Jason asked him to be his teacher. He remembers the long nights he stayed in this room, when he wasn’t Robin yet. Trying to learn a new song, cheering when he did, waking Alfred up to show him.

            The last time he played was before he died. Jason _remembers_ it. It was a couple of months before he died—he’d learned a pretty difficult song, and so he played it in front of Alfred, Bruce, and Dick. He remembers Dick clapping like crazy, impressed by Jason’s skills, and Alfred smiling proudly. He doesn’t remember what Bruce’s reaction was—not that he wants to—but it doesn’t matter.

            He smiles when he gets to his favourite part of the song. It’s a shame that he there’s not a piano in his house, he thinks. He would play it all the time. If his relationship with Bruce weren’t so messed up, he would ask for one. But Jason’s not supposed to like Bruce, and so Bruce is not supposed to give him a _piano_.

            He also wishes he knew the name of the song he’s playing, because it’s _beautiful_.

            “ _Penguin’s game_ ,” someone says.

            Jason stops playing and turns around to see Damian on the door. His clothes are covered with dirt and mud, his hair dripping water, and Jason remembers why he’s on the manor. The kid’s dog. Damian’s dog is dead, and Jason’s supposed to be taking care of him, since Dick is too occupied in Blüdhaven doing god knows what.

            “What’s that?” he asks, maybe a bit too sharply. But he’s been playing the piano and he doesn’t know how much time Damian’s been there, he has the right to be rude.

            “The song’s name. Penguin’s game. Mother played it once to me.”

            “Oh.” Okay, at least now Jason knows the name. Good. What’s he supposed to do now? What would _Dick_ do? He would probably get up and hug Damian, but Jason knows better than that—if he goes and hugs the kid, Damian’s surely going to bite him. It would only make things worse. So he does the next best thing he knows and says, “Do you wanna hear another song?”

            Jason knows that he should ask Damian if he’s okay or if he needs anything, since the kid is going through a hard time, but they are _bats_. They don’t do _feelings_. And Jason isn’t good at them, so he does the best thing he can.

            Damian shrugs but walks towards Jason, sits beside him and sighs deeply. Jason has never had any dogs or cats or whatever, so he doesn’t know how Damian is feeling. But by his face, he looks pretty bad. Jason knows that he’s trying to look cool and normal, trying to pretend he’s made of rock. And it kind of makes things worse, because now Jason has to pretend everything’s all right too.

            “What do you want me to play?”

            “I don’t care,” Damian says, looking at his feet.

            Jason cracks his knuckles. “Good, ‘cause I don’t know the name of the songs. Hey, what do you say? I play a song and you have to guess the name?”

            “Whatever.”

            _Okay_ , Jason thinks, and starts to play. Alfred didn’t teach him this one—once, when Alfred was sick and Jason had already learned every song the butler taught him, he looked up songs on the Internet and this one caught his attention. He liked how it sounded, and now that he’s playing it again after all those years, the song kind of reminds him of _Tim_. Like, this could be the soundtrack of Tim’s life.

            The corners of his lips turn upwards, and Jason thinks that he’ll play this one for Tim when he has the chance.

            Damian sniffs and mutters, “That’s Fugue No. 16 in G minor. Try harder.”

            “Okay, you little brat,” Jason says, and thinks of something more difficult. Sometimes he forgets that Damian, apart from a little assassin, is also a little genius.

            He starts playing again, this time faster, and this is _his_ song. It reminds him of himself. He spent weeks practicing this one because it was so complicated to follow the rhythm, Jason always was a bit too fast or a bit too slow. Once he got so angry with himself because he couldn’t get it right that he slammed the piano and didn’t touch it for two weeks until Alfred convinced him to try again.

            Jason doesn’t know when, but he has his eyes closed when he feels Damian squirm a little bit closer to him. Jason tenses, feeling the wet clothes of the kid, and tries to pretend that everything’s okay—he’s not Dick, he’s not used to Damian getting cozy with him, not even when he’s just buried his dog. However, he doesn’t stop playing the song until he hears Damian sniff again.

            “Etude No. 2,” he mutters. Jason opens his eyes and looks at him, and Damian is definitely closer to him now. Jason doesn’t even know if he’s guessing correctly the names or if he’s just saying random songs, but he doesn’t really care, he’s just doing this to make him feel a bit better. Or to forget about his dog. Whatever comes first. He prepares himself to play another one when Damian says, “I’ve never liked that song. It’s creepy.”

            “Creepy, huh?” Jason doesn’t think that the song is creepy at all, but he’s not going to make fun of Damian for thinking so—he’s always liked to hear people’s opinions on songs, because everyone hears them differently. “I thought you’d like it.”

            “No,” Damian says, looking at the piano. “Play something happy,” he asks, and Jason obliges.

            This song reminds him of _Dick_. Jason thinks of Dick’s acrobatics, of his jumps and somersaults and twirls and he can’t help but imagine him jumping from a skyscraper with this song playing on the back. He smiles thinking of that but instantly comes back to his serious expression—this is supposed to be a sad day. He’s here because of Damian, and even though the kid’s asked him to play something nice, that doesn’t mean he can smile while he’s at it.

            “Neopolitan dance. Tchaikovsky.” This time Jason hears the unshed tears, the tremble in his voice. He stops playing at looks at Damian—he looks so small, so fragile. Jason knows that if Damian wanted, he could strangle him with his hands, but still. He looks… his _age_. He looks like a child who’s just lost his pet.

            “It’s okay,” Jason says, even though it’s probably not, not for Damian. But instead of getting up and going away like Jason thought he would do, Damian leans on Jason, rests his head on Jason’s side and covers his eyes with his hands. Jason doesn’t know for sure, but he thinks the kid’s crying. “I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, but—”

            “I miss him,” Damian mutters, and oh man. Where is Dick when you need him? He would know what to do. He’s the Big Brother of this family, he always knows what to do in emotional situations like this.

            “I know,” Jason says. He awkwardly puts his arm around Damian and presses him closer to his body. A thunder sounds outside, and Damian is definitely crying, because Jason can perfectly feel his body trembling. “I’m sorry, kiddo.”

            “You don’t care.”

            “Hey, of course I care. I’m your _brother_.” The words are out of his mouth even before Jason can think of them, and Damian looks as surprised as Jason feels at the words. He just sounded like _Dick_. “I mean, I—Titus was your friend, even _I_ can understand that. And I care about you, really. Like it or not, we are family.”

            Jason’s not a hundred per cent sure, but he thinks Damian just smiled at that. Jason smiles a little bit too, and then he ruffles the kid’s hair with his hand, hugs him. “It’s going to be okay,” he says. Damian wraps his arms around Jason’s torso, and this time Jason hears him _sob_.

            It’s sad and terrible and Jason doesn’t know what else to do, so he just hugs his baby brother back and waits for it to pass. And he thinks, if he had to pick a song for Damian, he would pick the first one. Penguin’s name—complicated but beautiful, kind of like Damian.

God, he’s really becoming Dick.

            “What do you say,” he mutters, patting Damian’s back, “we go to the nearest flower shop and buy your dog some flowers? Would you like that?”

            Damian nods with his head, but he doesn’t stop hugging Jason. And it’s okay, because Jason has all the time in the world. They can hug now. They can cry now. They’ll but flowers after, and then maybe Jason will play him another song.

           


End file.
